Auke Visser's International Esso Tankers site | home
FUELING ESCORT DESTROYERS
SS Paterson
The Esso Paterson was built at Chester, Penna., for the United States Maritime Commission and was originally named the Germantown. She was sold to the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey on her delivery date, November 30, 1942, renamed by her new owners, and time chartered to the War Shipping Administration.
The Esso Paterson left Chester on December 8 for Beaumont, Texas, where she loaded her first cargo, 137,052 barrels of gasoline, for New York. Captain Guy A. Campbell was her master and Chief Engineer Alvah B. Strout was in charge of her engineroom.
The tanker's next cargo was 118,872 barrels of gasoline and kerosene and a deck cargo of war planes loaded at New York for Casablanca, where she arrived January 25, 1943.
The Casablanca voyage was the first of four transatlantic round trips which the Esso Paterson made during 1943; they alternated with voyages from the Caribbean to New York. In April, and again in June, she discharged at Glasgow cargoes of fuel oil loaded at Curacao. On July 30 she arrived at Gibraltar to deliver 98,999 barrels of special Navy fuel oil from Aruba. The rest of 1943 was spent in coastwise and Caribbean service.
The Esso Paterson came through nearly three years of wartime voyaging without being damaged by enemy action, but like other vessels on the high seas in the years of conflict, she sailed in constant danger. Therisks she ran were high-lighted by two close calls in 1943.
"May Have Been Torpedo"
The first of these incidents occurred on July 2, 1943, when the Esso Paterson was approaching New York harbor. With characteristic official brevity, which leaves the dramatic quality of the incident largely to the imagination, the U. S. Navy recorded a radio message received from the tanker:
"1 p.m. Esso Paterson reports wake sighted between buoys A and B, Ambrose Swept Channel. Wake crossed stern of vessel from starboard to port at estimated speed 15 to 18 knots. May have been torpedo."
The second incident occurred during the Esso Paterson's visit to Gibraltar, July 30 to August 7, 1943. Captain Campbell reported that on one day three ships, a tanker and two freighters, were torpedoed and sunk in the port of Gibraltar.
Fueling at Sea Became Routine Job
On her transatlantic voyages the Esso Paterson successfully fueled escort vessels at sea so frequently that the operation became routine. On her return trip in convoy from her first visit to Glasgow, she fueled seven destroyers on the 14 day voyage, April 9 to 23, 1943, On her way back from Gibraltar in another convoy she fueled three destroyers in one day, August 11, 1943. One of them was the USS Leary (DD 158), later torpedoed in the act of ramming a U-boat while protecting an Atlantic convoy.
In 1944 the Esso Paterson was sent to the Pacific and with the exception of two voyages she served there for the remainder of the war. She made six trips in the Pacific in 1944. Radio Operator Earle J. Schlarb, in an interview for this history, described the high spots of that year:
"On my first trip aboard the Esso Paterson we left Norfolk on March 21, 1944. It was eleven months before we again touched a United States continental port. We loaded fuel oil at Curacao and proceeded to Pago Pago, Samoa, where we discharged ashore, April 16 and 17. Pago Pago harbor is the crater of an extinct volcano, with everything built around the sides and the harbor in the center.
Visited by Former Esso Mate
"Next we loaded, at Aruba, special Navy fuel for Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, where we helped to fuel Task Force 58, May 30 to June 1, 1944. We discharged part of our cargo into the Navy tanker USS Schuylkill (AO 76). Lieutenant Commander Vincent F. Lucas, USNR, executive officer of the Schuylkill - who was second mate of the famous George G. Henry when she fueled the U. S. Asiatic Fleet early in the war - came aboard for a visit. While we were at Majuro a Jap submarine was sunk outside the harbor."
(On June 11, 1944, ten days after the Esso Paterson finished discharging at Majuro, Vice Admiral Mitscher's fast carriers and battleships of Task Force 58 started to prepare the way for the amphibious assault on Saipan; carrier planes achieved control of the air over the Marianas in their first attack. On June 15, American forces landed on Saipan and the landing on Guam began on July 21.)
To continue Radio Operator Schlarb's story:
"After carrying a cargo of special Navy fuel oil from Balboa to Pearl Harbor, the Esso Paterson loaded at Curacao for Manus, huge Navy base in the Admiralty Islands. There were still a few Japs hiding out in the hills on Manus. While we were there, September 21 to October 1, we saw the last self-propelled unit of the famous sectional dry dock arrive. Tokyo Rose boasted that the Japanese were waiting until the whole dry dock was assembled before blowing it to pieces. At Manus we discharged into Navy fleet oilers and then left for Balboa."
(To quote Admiral King's report of events which soon followed: "During the 9 days preceding the landing on Leyte, the task groups sortied from New Guinea ports and the Admiralties and moved toward Leyte Gulf . . . After heavy bombardment by ships' guns and bombing by escort planes . . . troops of, the 10th and 24th Corps were landed as scheduled on the morning of 20 October.")
Attached to Halsey's Third Fleet
"At Balboa," Schlarb said, "we again loaded a cargo of special Navy fuel oil which the Esso Paterson delivered at Ulithi, Caroline Islands, November 26 to December 2, 1944. In the great lagoon at Ulithi we saw four large carriers, a number of battleships, including the USS Missouri, and all types of auxiliaries - hospital ships, landing craft, etc. They were all part of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, to which we were then attached."
Following the .completion of the Esso Paterson's fueling mission at Ulithi came naval operations in Ormoc Bay. As reported by Admiral King: "In order to cut the enemy overwater lines of supply and reinforcement and to separate enemy ground for-ces on Leyte, an additional amphibious landing was made at Ormoc Bay, on the west coast of the island, on 7 December . . . On 15 December, Southwest Pacific forces landed on the southwest coast of Mindoro . . . As an immediate and strong reaction by the enemy was expected, carrier planes of the Third Fleet promptly began making Manila Bay untenable. Securing tactical surprise, they struck at dawn on 14 December, the day before the "Mindoro landings."
From Ulithi, the Esso Paterson went to Curacao. Arriving January 1, 1945, she loaded fuel oil for Halifax.
New York to Manus, Leyte, Ulithi, Eniwetok
After repairs in dry dock at New York, the tanker returned to the Pacific and completed three more Navy fueling missions before the end of hostilities.
The Esso Paterson arrived at Manus March 13, at Leyte March 25, and at Eniwetok April 26. On the next voyage, loading at San Pedro, the tanker discharged at Ulithi June 2 to 4 and at Manus June 7 to 9. With her next cargo, loaded at Abadan, she arrived at Ulithi August 9. Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet was then hammering Japan "with its planes and guns, sailing boldly into Japanese coastal waters."
(Report of General Marshall)
On V-J Day, September 2, 1945, the Esso Paterson was en route from Pearl Harbor to Ulithi with special Navy fuel oil.
The masters of the Esso Paterson in the war years were Captains Guy A. Campbell, Garden Dwyer, and Kenneth Wing.
In charge of her engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers Alvah B. Strout, John W. Balzli, Laurence B. Jones, and Reginald S. Patten.
The Esso Paterson's wartime transportation record was in summary as follows:
The SS Esso Paterson was built in 1942 by the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Chester, Penna. Her sisterships were the Esso Gettysburg, lost by enemy action June 10, 1943; the Esso Manhattan; the Esso Washington, stranded March 14, 1945 at Eniwetok and abandoned by order of the War Shipping Administration; the Esso Wilmington; and the Esso Norfolk.
A single-screw vessel of 16,750 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 30 feet, 2 inches, the Esso Pa-terson has an overall length of 523 feet, 6 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 503 feet, a moulded breadth of 68 feet, and a depth moulded of 39 feet, 3 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 138,335 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 7,000 barrels an hour.
Her turbo-electric engine, supplied with steam by two water-tube boilers, develops 7,240 shaft horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 14.6 knots.
|